There's a campaign I want to start on Sunday night, but I want some opinions on weather the premise is okay.
First for some backstory:
The campaign takes place on my continent of Syrix, more specifically the northern mountain town of Gates. For centuries Gates was part of the Drombidus empire, a human run entity which once spanned much of the continent but has been dwindling for generations. Recently the northern mountain settlements have fallen prey to attacks by drow, duergar and deep gnomes- creatures that are now known to have been living in the caves of the northern region.
Every human settlement was obliterated except for Gates, which is barely surviving the near constant siege. Meanwhile, in the capitol city of Drombidus, the king is between a rock and a hard place. He wants desperately to send his army to the north, but things aren't so simple. For about two hundred years the Temple Plethora and it's inquisition have grown more and more powerful to the point that the chief inquisitor is something of a rival king within the same city. The king knows that if he leaves the capitol city of Drombidus to save Gates, Drombidus and the king's castle will likely be taken over by the inquisition.
For a while the king sits idly, until his conscience gets the best of him. Risking it all, he marches his army north to stop the drow/duergar/deep gnome menace once and for all.
Where the adventurers come in:
Every adventurer is either a pardoned prisoner, freed indentured servant or volunteer sent to fight for the survival of Gates. Because each adventurer in the party is a seasoned combatant with some powerful magic or fighting skills, they begin the game with a royal allowance of 10,500 gold (Which the rulebook says is fair for level 5). Essentially, they are paid to fight, and if need be die.
The adventure begins when our heroes arrive at the peasant quarter of the city (The Northeast gate of the town of Gates- confusing, I know). The adventurers are doing some combat drills when suddenly some nimble drow scale the wall in this section of town. All the combat NPC's flee to reach the inner gate, and a cowardly militiaman locks the party out. Essentially, there is an outer gate (scaled by the drow), and an inner gate for added protection. Caught between the two town gates, the party must repel wave after wave of duergar and drow in a climactic battle.
When the battle is over and the inner gate is reopened, the king of the Drombidus Empire and Gates' military captain praise you for your valor. You are freed of your standard town guard obligations and used to carry out scouting missions, dangerous dungeon crawls and diplomatic missions that will determine the fate of the town
Sound playable?
There's a campaign I want to start on Sunday night, but I want some opinions on weather the premise is okay.
First for some backstory:
The campaign takes place on my continent of Syrix, more specifically the northern mountain town of Gates. For centuries Gates was part of the Drombidus empire, a human run entity which once spanned much of the continent but has been dwindling for generations. Recently the northern mountain settlements have fallen prey to attacks by drow, duergar and deep gnomes- creatures that are now known to have been living in the caves of the northern region.
Every human settlement was obliterated except for Gates, which is barely surviving the near constant siege. Meanwhile, in the capitol city of Drombidus, the king is between a rock and a hard place. He wants desperately to send his army to the north, but things aren't so simple. For about two hundred years the Temple Plethora and it's inquisition have grown more and more powerful to the point that the chief inquisitor is something of a rival king within the same city. The king knows that if he leaves the capitol city of Drombidus to save Gates, Drombidus and the king's castle will likely be taken over by the inquisition.
For a while the king sits idly, until his conscience gets the best of him. Risking it all, he marches his army north to stop the drow/duergar/deep gnome menace once and for all.
Where the adventurers come in:
Every adventurer is either a pardoned prisoner, freed indentured servant or volunteer sent to fight for the survival of Gates. Because each adventurer in the party is a seasoned combatant with some powerful magic or fighting skills, they begin the game with a royal allowance of 5,500 gold (Which the rulebook says is fair for level 5). Essentially, they are paid to fight, and if need be die.
The adventure begins when our heroes arrive at the peasant quarter of the city (The Northeast gate of the town of Gates- confusing, I know). The adventurers are doing some combat...
i find trials by fire are the best ways to start of campaigns
so YES
Ok,
Couple of things.
A) Not sure about the 5,500. Is this on top of the suggested 10,500 WBL? Or is this in place of? If it's in addition to, you're cranking their WBL up one level. That's not too bad, since it's a homebrew and it's you making the encounters, but it will give them an edge. If it's in place of the 10,500 then you're halving their equipment and leaving them about as well equipped as 4th level characters, which means you'll have to adjust the 'waves of enemies' accordingly.
B) If you're going to start them off trapped in a no-escape situation, you're going to have to be careful on your force appreciations. One good fireball by an enemy can leave them all hurting. Unless all the enemies are 2nd level drow and duerger warriors, they're likely to have some issues, especially since they won't be able to easily heal. On the other hand that seems to be what you are going for, a desperate last defense to intro the game. You'll have to be very careful with your force estimates is all I can say.
I was wrong about the wealth, editing now. 10,500
Also, I plan on using the drow and duergar straight from the bestiary, and possibly some magical beasts. Bottom line is I'm keeping the waves weak but plentiful, and I'll adjust the numbers based on performance.
I was wrong about the wealth, editing now. 10,500
Also, I plan on using the drow and duergar straight from the bestiary, and possibly some magical beasts. Bottom line is I'm keeping the waves weak but plentiful, and I'll adjust the numbers based on performance.
Yea, I've always viewed D&D and Pathfinder as a rules system, with the rest of it open to interpretation.
The Core Rulebook has the rules, the Bestiary monsters are suggestions.
If all PCs aren't created equal, neither are all monsters. What a boring world that would be.
Tweaking is a GMs best friend.
My advice would to be make sure the party have an emotional bond with the townsfolk, and that the militia who lock them out are seen as very much seperate from the town itself.
- If it is only one militiaman who shuts them in the kill zone have a ready answer as to why the others cannot re-open the gate breifly, or why ropes cannot be thrown down or grappling hooks thrown up.
- Have a really good reason why quick thinking and acting players cannot overtake the fleeing NPC's.
- Why are they forced to fight wave after wave? Is there no place to hide, wall to scale, sewer to jump in? Give the players very good reasons why this is not an option.
- Have a default climax for the battle on the very real chance that the characters do not bravely/foolishly stand in front of the gates and hold the line. (Invisibility, disguise, charm, diplomacy, illusion, playing dead, switching sides,hiding, sneaking out the back, or even battering down the inner gate must all be seen as options.)
I know that the group I play with would try all these options and many more ingenious solutions rather than face a ravening hoard, especially if they feel that they have been set up, betrayed or just left out to die by some cowardly militia. More especially if you have not managed to engender a feeling of loyalty to the town and it's peoples first.
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Yes, exactly. 5th level characters will have all sorts of tricks, spells, and class abilities to get them where they want to go.
For example, your wizard could cast blink and just walk through the wall. Or he could cast fly and start bringing folks over one by one. Your melee types might be able to climb over the wall with little problem. A +13 climb modifier is not difficult by 5th level.
My party might fire off a few spells at the gate itself, breaking it open and forcing those inside to fight or die. Remember, your players might be prisoners, with little love for the people around them.
They might even try to join forces with the attacking drow.
Don't get me wrong -- I like the premise. But you'll need to incorporate some reasons why various escape attempts won't work. Some ideas might be drow with invisibility are actually ahead of the main group, and next to the pcs right off the bat. They are immediately drawn into combat when the drow attack them.
Drow wizards could be prepared with counterspells or dispels to remove those flight spells, or grease to cause climbing barbarians to fall off the wall.
Interesting.
I'm curious why drow, duergar and deep gnomes are all working together. Generally these races are at eachothers throats so as a player my first question was why they had suddenly decided to act in concert and who was in charge? As a player I would be digging in to why this situation had arisen, is a powerful demon or aberration pulling the strings or is something happening on the surface thats bringing them forth? This sort of attitude in play might cause you problems as I would already be nipping off to investigate or planning defences based on previous strikes rather than waiting for the big attack. I would certainly advise some rationale or big bad in the wings to explain the situation re the protagonists, it makes for a bit of investigation and makes the baddies into rounded creations rather than the idea that the dragon lives next to the ogre, next door to the aboleth, all with nothing to eat and no reason to be there.